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Sunday, 16 October 2005
Moved to drivenentrepreneur.blogspot.com
This blog has permenantly moved to blogspot.com at
http://drivenentrepreneur.blogspot.com
Please updates your bookmarks and favorites. See you all there!
Sunday, 9 October 2005
Jennifer Kushell mentioned me on her blog!
Jen Kushell's Blog
I emailed Jennifer Kushell, President and Founder of Young and Successful Media Corp, about updating her blog and was so happy to receive a gracious reply! She thanked me (Mari Skylar) for the email and has already updated her blog. To hear about the entrepreneurial lifestyle from someone who's been there and back. From eating ramen noodles to meeting successful CEOs. She was my initial inspiration to becoming an entrepreneur. Without her, I might have never entered the business world. She explains well that being an entreprenuer is not just about the money - it's about success, leadership, a lifestyle, and a want/need to do good. She's amazing!!
Thursday, 29 September 2005
Young entrepreneur not being taken seriously
09/29/05
I sat across from Steve, an overweight Caucasian man with thinning brown hair brushed to the side in a 50s style fashion at the country club of a small upper-class town in Florida ready to discuss the possibility of ATA (my father's accounting firm) working with his Business Solutions company.
Me, a 5'1" young girl dressed in long skirt and sweater, in order to look professional, was what Steve was looking down upon with his casual smile. I, not thinking about what a child I looked like, began the conversation with taking out my Pocket PC ready to take notes, before discussing ATA and my father being a bookkeeper for his business clients, I began talking about the future of handhelds.
"Why don't you use handhelds to maintain your appointments and contacts?"
"Battery life. I found my best battery is water."
I laughed when I thought he meant that once water hits the device - it's gone, but realized shortly after that he meant his brain and pocket book can handle the memory of contacts and appointments, and that to maintain his energy throughout the day he drinks water.
"It's strange that I don't use these devices because I was in the IT industry in the 70s, in fact, I helped write the program for them." He stated.
"Really, well, then, we might have to talk sometime soon, because I'm considering entering the IT industry but I want to know, why did you exit it?"
He basically just stated that he didn't trust the devices because they don't last due to battery life limitations.
"But these handhelds are the future." I persisted enthusiastically (later I realized my reaction was a bit childish because it seemed as though I was young and naive about the industry - which, right now, maybe I am.
"But I wont use something I don't need. I didn't even buy a DVD player until my wife bought one DVD and needed something to play it on." Steve is a community building. He informs the Leads group of all community happenings such as a literacy program to get kids to love reading occurring next month and a relief fund for Hurricane Katrina victims. He stated he was too busy when I finally whipped out with the ATA discussion and how my father could possibly become a bookkeeper to whom he would refer clients.
"I have a lot of 1099ers whom I need bookkeeking for." He began as I rushed to scribble 1099ers down, I didn't know what they were but figured they were tax related. I then asked questions about how we would pick up bookkeeping material and that I would email him to remind him of ATA and his Business solutions company's collaboration. He could tell I knew little about accounting and bookkeeping it and of itself, my adolescent shape and statue predicted this, but I did the best I could to be professional. The only thing that gave me away as too young a person was my small stature, lack of tax and accounting knowledge, and fast/eager speech. Nevertheless I emailed him, spoke to Marlon, a 27-year-old home engineer and a few others. I've tried to keep in touch with the ones I believe might help me in my IT endeavors.
On the note of IT - I've changed the direction of my business EEi, toward information technology. After my father mentioned a business in ebooks last weekend I've become a bit obsessive about them. I'm already creating HTML documents to read on my PDA, can no longer stand print books, and have finally recognized my love of technology - specifically information technology, but for the past two years, I'm constantly thought it an isolating profession.
At the age of 13 I pounded out HTML code to design my first web pages, taught myself the code, at 18 I was the first of my friends to buy a laptop with my own money, and at 19 I bought a Pocket PC. I've had little desire to buy music CDs, download and share hundreds of pictures or use instant message, but I loved information technology, writing and e-publishing. I didn't recognize as a business opportunity until this week. It's funny to think a year or two ago I dug in the dirt behind my yard creating my first garden, and sit at a sewing machine trying to design my own fashions as well as abstain as best I could from the internet and read print books. come to think of it, I'm one of the strangest characters I know. I knew few women in information technology, but I'm not on my way to finding them.
News toward my college life - As a third year college student and aspiring entrepreneur I sit at my laptop today telling world I received a 78 and 75, and a 81 on my first fall semester exams. A year ago I would have hidden this information as it were my worst enemy and reputation destroyer because of the culture in which I was raised - "to be smart you must prove it by your high grades." I've been hearing too often from my accounting professors and from others in the past that you learn most of what you're going to learn about your career in the field is on the job, not in college - why waste my time getting As when I can succeed in preparing for my business launch and ultimate career success? Of course not.
Driven Entrepreneur ? Copyright 2005
Thursday, 22 September 2005
Entering the eBooks industry?
9/22/2005 7:18 AM
A preconception exists that technology and furthering technology is isolating. Mr. Pugh, my English Literature professor preferred I not use a laptop in his class because it tends to portray solitary or isolated activity. People, it seems, are reluctant to enter the technology industry or rely upon technology is because it can isolate people considering an entire system of entertainment and information rests on a laptop today. For teens, especiall, technology and the internet can make too many people hermits. This is the conception I’ve had over the past few months. I relied heavily upon the internet to further my business, joined a few yahoo groups, and have frankly gotten sick of it. Instant message, online communities, and … in fact, they hurt my hands, and I’m more sick of it then I probably think – but I write and post on blogs because I can’t NOT write and this is the best way to share my thoughts – though an online blog. People can view it at their convenience. Nevertheless, technology is the future. After meeting Tina Holden, CEO of Absolutly Wireless, Inc. last night at a Student Entrepreneurship Society workshop I was inspired to focus my business goal again. Luckily after consulting my father – I want to do business in books, and he said flat-out this is little possibility in print books, he suggested ebooks. He’s self-proclaimed “not a businessman” but, quite intelligent about the future. He contemplates the future and is usually right about it. This seems unlikely from a person like my father, but he tends to entire impress or turn-off people in conversations when they know he is right, or written off by others who don’t want to believe. He has strong beliefs and ideas, much like myself.
I woke at 5:45 this morning unable to sleep after a consideration of entering the ebook market after my success presentation or during it, and have been researching since that time. I have a personal interest in it considering it disseminated important knowledge and I get to market, speak about books, read them, and know about new published books. I value books and can likely find the right kind for clients as well as other resources attributed to them. I’d like to provide audiobooks as well. I’ve become jealous of Seattle residents lately, after having a professor from there this summer, I found that it’s a largely technology driven place. Almost everyone has a laptop and are extremely computer literature. When my desire to design websites, use a laptop during class to take notes in literature, and want a laptop and PDA at a young age was looked upon as reclusive is suddenly not so any longer. I do not personally believe technology and connections with people should be separate entities, so why do I not act upon that goal to meld the connection with usefulness of technology as well as maintain connections with people? I should. Bringing ebooks into academics settings, business settings, but especially to the mainstream can be accomplished.
Immersing into eBooks
9/22/2005 9:51:13 PM
I’ve spent the last five hours or so immersing myself in the world of electronic books, tested several programs on my Pocket PC such as eReader, Adobe PDF for Pocket PC, and Microsoft reader. After hours of tinkering with the programs I finally realized the only one which will creates ease in reading is Microsoft Reader. No wonder the market is small and slow to grow. The current software definitely is not user-friendly.
Now that I can read books on my Pocket PC I am throughly enjoying downloading all the interesting ebooks I can find for Microsoft Reader, having been an English and literature major, I’m finding many that are of my like (the classics). I’ve haven’t been so enthralled by technology since my beginning web design days, I think I might have found my industry in eBooks!
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